This page will detail the strategies for defeating the Vanadis boss fight in Wildwoods in God of War Ragnarok.

How to Beat Vanadis in God of War Ragnarok¶

Vanadis is the seventh boss fight in the game, fought after completing The Lost Sanctuary main story mission. You will return to Midgard and fight off some Hel enemies with Atreus, then regain control of Kratos and have to defeat a few more. As soon as you do the second round of enemies, you will have this boss attack you right away.

Vanadis will use a mixture of both ranged attacks and melee ones, and she moves rather quickly, so you will want to be on your toes at all times. Overall, it’s not a terribly difficult fight, as Vanadis will only really have two attacks to be careful about, with the rest of them being blockable.

All of Vanadis’ Attacks¶

The following is a list of all of Vanadis’ attacks, which will stretch across two phases.

Jumping Lunge Attack¶

This is probably one of the most dangerous moves in Vanadis’ arsenal. She will just randomly jump straight at you, quite quickly, and smash the ground with her sword. You will need to dodge this, as the attack is unblockable, so always be ready to roll out of the way.

Arrow Shot¶

Vanadis will fire two normal arrows at you. You can simply block both of these, so this isn’t really much of an attack.

Arrow Spread¶

Similar to the previous attack, Vanadis will fire a bunch of arrows this time, in a fan-like pattern. Again, you can simply block this, since if you’re far enough away, you will only get hit by a single arrow.

Dashing Strikes¶

Vanadis will quickly dash in and perform a series of two sword strikes in quick succession. Despite the swiftness of this move, both sword strikes can be blocked, so it’s less serious.

Melee Strikes¶

There are a few melee strikes that Vanadis will use, although they don’t seem to be very common. One will typically follow the double blue ring, especially if you keep trying to attack her. If you see the blue rings, it’s probably just best to get away from her. Both of the attacks in the first phase do have a yellow ring, so they will break your guard.

Poison Pools¶

You will only see this move during the second phase of the battle. You will see a red circle and Vanadis will toss out some poison balls, which when they hit the ground, will cause some poison pools to appear. They stay around for a few seconds before dissipating, so it’s best to just keep a distance until they disappear.

Four-Hit Combo¶

This is the only other new attack in the second phase of the battle. Vanadis will sometimes do a four-hit combo with her sword, although you are able to block all of the hits. This doesn’t seem to be used all too often, but enough times that you need to keep an eye out for it.

How to Defeat Vanadis¶

Overall, Vanadis isn’t an exceptionally challenging boss, but her swiftness does make for a somewhat decent fight. She will also go in and out of melee range, with her using her arrow attacks whenever she’s at a distance. Of course, you don’t really need to worry about these ranged attacks, since you can block both of them. What you should be on the lookout for is if she decides to do her Jumping Lunge, as it’s very fast and unblockable. The other attack where Vanadis dashes in isn’t as bad, since you can block those sword strikes.

Once you remove about three bars of her health, the game will transition to a slightly new arena and you will unlock a new Rage mechanic, called Valor. Instead of using the Rage gauge to become a punching machine, you will instead use a fraction of it to heal yourself. Whenever this battle is over, you will be able to switch between the two via the Weapons menu. The second phase of the battle with Vanadis isn’t all too different than the first, since she only has two new attacks.

You will see a red circle flash, indicating that Vanadis will toss some poison orbs out, which leave behind a pool of poison where they hit the ground. It’s best to just back away and wait for the pools to dissipate, before going after the boss again. The other new attack is just a four-hit melee combo, with all of the attacks being normal ones. That means you can block all of them, without having to worry about your guard breaking or something being unblockable.